Carol’s story – Fighting and Beating Bladder Cancer

Talk about being surprised! Carol had a CT scan to determine the reason for her back pain and instead learned she had bladder cancer.

“The pain specialist I had been seeing for my back noticed a spot on my bladder on my CT scan and suggested I see a urologist right away. That didn’t sound good,” Carol says.

Before meeting with The Urology Group’s Dr. Paurush Babbar, Carol did her homework. “I thought I would have at least five years to live but was stunned when Dr. Babbar said it could be less. I left the office in shock, met my girlfriends for lunch, and we just cried and cried.”

But Carol, then age 60, is a fighter with a glass-half-full attitude. She would do everything she could to beat bladder cancer.

First up, BCG therapy, a standard first-line treatment for bladder cancer. “BCG shrunk the tumor, but it kept coming back.” It was time to consider a different treatment, advised Dr. Babbar. “He suggested I see an oncology bladder surgeon, who may be able to recommend other treatments.”

The Urology Group’s ideal surgeon, Dr. Caitlin Shepherd, explained other treatment options, but they would not guarantee the outcome that Carol hoped. “I knew surgery would mean wearing a urostomy pouch to collect urine for the rest of my life, but Dr. Shepherd said the surgery was the best bet to becoming cancer free.”

With encouragement from her daughters, Carol agreed to the surgery. But despite her positive attitude, she was understandably scared. Worried she may not survive, “at Christmas, just two-and-a-half months before the surgery, I gave some of my personal items to my grandchildren in preparation for the worst.”

A month later Carol woke from the 8-hour procedure grateful to be alive, with the promised urostomy pouch attached just to the right of her naval. “Now my urine drains into something called an ileal conduit, which Dr. Shepherd created from a piece of my bowels. The conduit leads to the stoma, and the pouch is attached to the stoma.”

An adhesive keeps the pouch in place so it doesn’t move when Carol goes about her day. She empties the pouch into the toilet “whenever it gets full, usually 7 or 8 times a day.” At bedtime she attaches a bigger pouch. “That’s a bonus! I no longer have to get up in the middle of the night to pee!”

Now considered cancer-free, Carol says her pouch hasn’t been the headache she thought it might be. “It doesn’t smell and I’m able to swim, which I just love; honestly it hasn’t changed my life at all!”

Carol was told she could do just about anything she wants. “I learned that if I want to go bungee jumping there’s a special device I can wear to secure my stoma and pouch. But I won’t be needing that!”

Looking back, now three years post-surgery, Carol is grateful for the support she received from her children, grandchildren, friends, and her Mary Kay family where she has built a business for 32 years. “And I can’t say enough about Dr. Shepherd. She was awesome.”

Today Carol regularly supports friends and acquaintances with ostomies by sharing practical advice she has learned through her experience. “If someone is faced with bladder cancer, or wearing an ostomy pouch for another reason, I’m always happy to chat.”